White Balloon

So here's my frustration; maybe you've had this experience too.
You see a wonderful film that you think your young friend would love. Your sharing with them in the past has been a mixed bag, but mostly your recommendations have been met with gratitude. But your friend is an adult now, and looks at you no longer as a mentor, and so resents your recommendations. And the more you ask them whether they have seen your recommendation, the more hostile they get. "I'll get to it! Lay off!"
This is of course very disappointing, as all you wanted to do was share a bit of media that you thought they would like and then you could enjoy it together.
Thus is The White Balloon. It is the current joy of my life.
I'm working my way through 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, by Steven Jay Schneider, and so far, the movies that I've seen based on his recommendations have been disappointing. This is an unfair characterization on my part for three reasons:
1) I've already seen 420 of the movies on his list. That means that he and I have already agreed on almost half of the selections. Since I've been playing catch-up and I've only seen what's available on YouTube so far, it seems like I've seen a lot of "important" (look out for that word) or "experimental" (avoid) films, which are not very much fun to watch.
2) I'm comparing it to my first 1000+ book, 1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die. That book changed my life for the better, because it exposed me to 820 recordings I'd never heard before (I thought I gave equal time to movies and music, but apparently, I've seen a lot more good movies.) The primary difference is in focus - Tom Moon wrote each entry in his book, personally gathered all the information from the various people he'd interviewed over the years, and had sections on "if you like this, you might like this as well." The Movie book has 77 different contributors who I'm sure have their own favorite "important" and "experimental" films to offer. I've seen some truly unwatchable films. I'll be writing on them later...But for now, I have one that is not boring or unwatchable. It's Jafar Panahi's The White Balloon. and if for not other reason, I'm glad I have the book because of it.

Here's the plot:
Razieh wants a fat goldfish for the Iranian New Years celebration instead of the skinny ones in her family's pond at home, because the fat fish looks like it's dancing when it swims.
That's it. It's a story of a girl trying to buy a gold fish.
The story is set in real time, so it starts about 90 minutes before the Iranian New Year, and we follow Razieh as she walks home with her mom, to begging her mom for money for the fish, and then follow her to the fish store so she can purchase her dream fish.
Doesn't sound like much, huh? Well I finally got some folks to watch it this week, and I'm happy to say I'm not crazy - it's an intensely riveting film.
I slag a lot on Steven Spielberg movies, primarily because he is a master at manipulating your emotions. A thousand people die in Schindler's List, but we only care about the one little girl in red. That's an example.
As we follow Razieh though, she finds herself in real situations, and you can honestly say that by the end of this film, you are walking in her shoes, you care about her, you are happy when she's happy, you're frightened and scared when she's frightened and scared.
I came to a realization, too, about Hollywood. I think there's probably a subset of films called "Children in Peril." Think of Jumanji, Aliens, Ransom, Adventures in Babysitting, The Good Son, The Shining, Goonies, The Incredibles, Home Alone, Terminator 2, Jurassic Park, 8 mm, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, and the mother of all Child Peril movies, The Exorcist.
The reason so many filmmakers use kids in situations like this is because, face it, when the adults in Jurassic Park die, we cheer; when "innocent" little kids are in peril, we scream. Spielberg knows that Peril x Kids = $$$.
But here's the genius of The White Balloon. We forget that peril to a seven year old is not being able to get enough money to buy a pretty gold fish. Or having strange adults not understand how important it is to tell the truth, to be honest, to not steal, to not try to get more than something is worth. We forget that losing something is terrifying, and it doesn't have to be your life or our brother or your home. It can be $5.
The genius of this movie is that we see the world through the eyes of Razieh, who sees adults who at first seem kind of scary and mean, but who ultimately help her in her quest for a pretty gold fish. Some adults try to cheat her, some make her cry, some make her smile, some take pity, others don't. One young man gives our stomachs a turn, but a parent's good lessons are recalled, thanks to her ally, Ali, her brother. Razieh said one of the simplest and most beautiful sentences of all: "I wanted to see what was not good for me." Oh that we had that cleansing level of self-awareness and shame.
WARNING: After watching this film, you will have a strong inclination to adopt an Iranian girl. I'm not saying you shouldn't but I will say you've been warned.

I've started a list of free films available on YouTube, both talkies and silent movies.

As part of my writing project, I worked on this one twice; I've re-written the original, but I'm still working in 30 minute bites.

The week that was, 1

I wonder how long it will be before Facebook creates an app that you can use at your funeral?
I've been to enough funerals - and you probably have to - to know how often people do "video" montages to the deceased's favorite song. I just attended one where we were treated to some amazing photos from the 1960s to the tune of "Red Solo Cup." Ok. No judging. Here's a hint, though; if you'd rather not see me rise out of the casket swinging the hammer of Thor, spewing vitriol and whatever guts I have left, don't play "Red Solo Cup" at my funeral.
My funeral will certainly be a subject for an upcoming post. It's been germinating in my mind for a long time.
I'm pretty sure Facebook already has video capability, which randomly takes pictures from your years on its site to create a kind of living montage.
I thought of this because as I was looking at my own page this week (number of friends - 555 and stable) and thought - that's a pretty good summation of my week.
Sunday, we went to a church that St. Paul might have been comfortable attending, or if not comfortable, at least he would have understood it. He would have heard half of it in Greek, he would have seen pictures of himself and his Savior, and his Savior's mom in beautiful representations all around an incredibly beautiful building dedicated to Jesus.
:Our trip to St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church is one of the final gems in our confirmation class' Houses of Worship Monster Tour. Father Seraphim was a wonderful and apologetic host. He said it was too long to be in church, but I could have stayed all morning. After the sermon, which probably gave our kids nightmares ("there is a real demon trying to drag you off into hell at this very moment!") we heard from three teen speakers, who are competing in a Orthodox oration competition, and that was lovely. We got to line up to get antidoron bread (a bread of welcome) and I kissed a priest's hand for the first time.
Tuesday, I took a picture of a bottle of water that is "synergestically balanced" for "optimum hydration" because of its "enhanced pH." And guess what? It's "smooth and natural." I think my vision of hell would include working on an ad campaign for water. I took this picture while I was helping the two winners of Miss Pierce County and Miss Teen Pierce County prepare for their upcoming pageants in Spokane. They gave us the same presentations they would give there, and we were supposed to pepper them with questions that would rattle them. To Megan, whose platform is music education, I asked, "If you could bring any musician to the state of Washington to teach, who would it be." She said it was a good question (yay!) and then asked if her dream musician could be living or dead. I restrained myself from saying something about a decomposing composer, and said, "Living," and she said the name of some great conductor from South America. I also restrained myself from saying, "Wrong. The correct answer is Bono." I also restrained myself from asking them if they felt objectified by the pageant system. I think I showed the restraint and poise of a pageant contestant, don't you? Honestly, it was a lot of fun, and good luck to you young women.
Then we went to see Noah and played hearts all night. I mean, all night. That was a good day, a good night and a good morning, although it screwed up my health for the next day.
Finally, last night, we went to see Tommy Castro at Jazzbones with our friends Brad and Staci. First time at JBones, I'd never heard of Tommy Castro before, and had a bang up time. I think I'm actually maturing as a music lover, now that I have seen blues played in a club. I can cross that off the old bucket list. That's my excuse for not posting yesterday. I think five times a week is a good start, don't you?
Religion, movies, music, cards and beauty contestants. Who has a better life?

Throw Jesus to the Kraken?

Evangelicals like to throw out the phrase "The main thing is the keep the main thing the main thing."
So you're on a ship, and there's a kraken who demands a sacrifice, and there are two things on his menu: Jesus Christ or the Bible. Once you give him the sacrifice, it disappears forever.
So what's the main thing? Is it Jesus or the Bible?
Sophie's Choice is child's play by comparison.
Few of us could get past the stomach-lurching decision to throw Jesus to the kraken, so we would then throw to the deep the book that introduced us to our savior. Most of us would keep our Savior and lose the book.
That makes Jesus the main thing.
This is important to remember when we speak about our infallible, ineffable, inerrant, indescribable book. It is a book containing The Word of God - The Word Made Flesh, the Word was God, the Word there from the beginning. But it is not our Savior.
Thankfully, we don't have to make a decision to bin the book forever. As long as there are hotels, there will be Bibles.
But this thought was brought up by our study this week of the theologian the 20th Century will be remembered first a thousand years from now. Not Billy Graham or CS Lewis or any of our fine popes or Dietrich Bonhoefer or Rheinhold Niebuhr or Martin Marty or Hans Kung or Leo Buscaglia or Mother Theresa or Martin Luther King Jr or Soren Kierkegaard or Gustavo Guiterrez or Paul Tillich or Tim Keller but this man:

Karl Barth is the reason the 20th century will be remembered, theologically, anyway.
I've said that your place on conservative/liberal continuum of the Bible depends on how seriously you take the Bible.
On the one end, there are liberal theologians who claim that the Bible is a decent study guide and interesting artifact that has some interesting stories and poems which led to the start of a new church which changed the world. The Easter Event (whatever it is) led to the disciples being convinced that Something Important happened and their reaction led to telling others about Jesus (who may or may not be who he said he was) and thus giving us all a good reason to help others.
On the other end, there are the fundamentalist theologians, who spend most of their time trying to crack the code of the Bible, trying to forget that God's word said, "No one knows the day or hour." Their hermeneutic can be summed up by "The Bible says it, I believe it and that settles it."
A similar statement was made by Karl Barth, the Swiss Reformed Theologian, who in his only trip to America was once asked if he could summarize his entire life's work in one sentence. This is a man who set about a massive task of systematizing Christian doctrine (he was on Volume 13 when he died in 1968). But he did not pause, but said, "'Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.'"
But before the fundamentalists begin passing around the celebratory snake, Barth did not believe in the inerrancy of Scripture, felt it was a human book filled with such obvious flaws to beggar belief to the contrary. He believed fervently that everything was secondary to Jesus Christ, including the Bible. When we slavishly defend the Bible against error-seekers, we're missing the point of Christ crucified. When we try to argue for a 6000 year old earth, we're missing the pint of Christ crucified. When we treat the Bible like a game of Jenga  That if we admit to one error in the Bible, the whole world will come crashing down.
Forgetting that Jesus is The Word of God, who died to save our sins.
I was introduced to a new concept of the Bible as "the paper pope." That ought to give us Protestants a little pause, true? Are we willing to throw our savior to the kraken in favor of the book that taught us about him? Or do we have a proper understanding of the relationship between our Lord and Savior and the holy book where we discover him anew each day?
Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. The Bible is the vehicle by which we discover The Main Thing.

Creationity

Wednesday is for words, and this week's word is creationity.
Has kind of a truthiness feel to it, doesn't it?
I saw Noah tonight with some junior and senior high sheep and their shepherds, and I was mightily impressed with Darren Aronofsky's attempt at telling an old tale in a new way.
First, I don't go to the movies to test the filmmaker's theology - I go with my theology to see what the filmmaker can add. Thank you, Martin Scorcese, for the indelible image of a happy Christ dancing at the Wedding of Cana; thank you Franco Zeffirelli for casting Robert Powell, who got the timbre of his voice just right; thank you Cool Hand Luke for a modern re-telling of the Christ story.
Aronofsky got two things perfect, and neither of them had to do with the actual story of Noah and the flood.
The first story he got right was the creation. Noah told it to his family while on the ark and the movie stopped
all of its contrivances about Rock versions of Tolkien's Ents and gave us a story the way Noah probably actually told it- the same way it was told to him from his father Lamech and grandfather Methusaleh.
Along with Crowe/Noah's narration, Aronofsky did in five minutes what the rest of the film failed to do - bring the Bible to life. Can we now just stop all of the creation/evolution nonsense and just watch that happy snippet?
Done.
The other story Noah got right was (wait for it) Abraham and Sarah.
This requires some explanation, and a little spoiler.
While any casual reader of Scripture can tell you that God spoke to Noah and directed him down to the last minute detail about how and why he was building the ark, the filmmakers decided to let Noah take God's vision of a destroyed world to its logical conclusion. Since man has screwed up the earth, Noah and his family were to be the last family. That is, Noah's sons were alive in order to bury their parents, who would then be buried by their youngest brother, Japheth. Since God was sparing no expense in making sure the animals were safe - because they hadn't screwed up creation, mankind had - then Noah believed God was implying, last human out, turn off the earth.

So when his daughter-in-law turns up pregnant, he believes it's God's will to kill his new grandchildren.
As he's setting out to do this act of God's will, his wife Naameh (played wonderfully by Jennifer Connelly) tells him that if he does this "act of God," that God may forgive him, but she never will. That this is absolutely not God's will, but his deranged mania. She begs and pleads or him not to kill his grandchildren.
And I thought, "That's probably when Sarah told Abraham when he went to sacrifice their only son Isaac on the mountain. A mother is not going to let a little thing like God's will get in the way of the love for her child. It was a magical film moment.
There were other clear wins in this film, led by the look on everyone's face when they could hear the screams of those who couldn't get on the boat, knowing full well that they were the ultimate death panel for the world. That Noah turned to drink after this made absolute sense.
The fact that he referred to God as "Creator"? Big whoop. God didn't say his name until Moses, and if you're only 10 generations from The Creation and God hadn't made a covenant with you (that's Abraham) or freed your people from Egypt (that's Moses) and appeared to you in visions, then yeah, Creator is a pretty good name.
I don't know if there is a natural anesthesia that could knock out an ark-full of animals, but I thought it deserved a B+ for creativity. And the fallen angels/rock men helping? That would speed up the ETA considerably. And Origen, if no one else, probably cheered that the fallen angels got to return to God at their life's end.
In talking with regular people about this film, remember to stress that Noah got it wrong and his wife and daughter got it right - God is a God of mercy, and her children were a sign from him that this was a new beginning, not just for the animals, but for people too.
Last thing, and then I'll stop. Michael Gerson's article is an excellent read, although he disagrees with me. (Dude, Noah WAS a "brooding, misanthropic vegan.")
I also agree with everything Pastor Robin Dugall says in his blog.
Sorry I was late - had an all-night hearts party tonight.

My job

I guess it's kinda natural to trash your own job. It's as American as peach berry cobbler.
I'd like to rebel against that a little.
A little?
Okay. A lot.
I like my church.
I haven't always felt that way in the past 22 years, not at the previous churches where I've served, or even the church I'm serving now.
Oh sure, you say - easy to praise what you're doing now, and trash the past.
No, I wouldn't do that to you. I truly think we have a man of God leading Our Savior, Pr. Brian Banke (take a bow). He has quelled a furor, got all of our horses heading in the right direction, and more importantly, he has cast and sold a vision for our church that I think is truly important.
Get that? I'm working at a church that is doing important things!
That vision is truly Lutheran, in that it emphasizes the priesthood of all believers. We are literally training men and women to be faith leaders in their community, through our Equip class. I am currently working myself out of a job by promoting and training parents to be shepherds (not chaperons). We have several non-ordained folks preaching and leading worship, to the benefit of all involved. We are making inroads into the community in significant way (i.e. feeding hungry kids each week, helping local schools, opening doors to ESL classes and Celebrate Recovery.) Our elders are actually eld-ing! Our women's ministries are strong, led by capable women. People of all ages are being fed, taught and cared for. We even have a thriving young adult ministry, which is the Great Chasm in most Lutheran churches.
And I haven't even talked about worship yet.
Ah, we'll save that for another time.
Or, if you don't believe me, you can check some sermons here
I guess the thing I'm most excited about now, tho, is the confirmation class here at Our Savior.
Confirmation is for our 7th and 8th graders and this is our first year of moving to a two-year program, and along with the regular catechism curriculum of yore, we've added what I think is a very helpful and practical year: a look at how God's promises reveal itself through the books of the Bible; and how we as Lutheran Church Missouri Synod Christians going to Our Savior Lutheran Church in Tacoma Washington compare to fellow LCMS churches, fellow Lutheran churches, fellow mainline denominational churches, fellow Protestants, fellow Christians and fellow religious people. We do that not only by studying what our similarities and differences are, but also by visiting their houses of worship. We've visited Temple Beth El and experienced the Sabbath the way Jesus likely did; we visited St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox church and experienced church the way the first Christians likely did; we tripped across the highway to a non-denominational church; we participated in worship led by a woman pastor; and finally, we're visiting a fellow LCMS church, though one that is much more traditional than we are. I feel that the experience our young people are having is matchless and will be remembered the rest of their lives. I am also proud to say that the receiving congregations have benefited from our amazing, polite ambassadors.
I know this sounds a little rah-rah, but it's hard to be cynical in the face of so many good things that are going on.
Are there problems? Of course. They have this aging youth director who thinks he's funny, but is really just impeding progress; once they get rid of him, this place is really going to take off.

It has been 693 days since my last confession...

One of the great joys of my life is writing, and while it seems I'm writing things every day, none of it is very permanent. So for 30 minutes each night, Monday through Friday, I'll be writing down a thought that I've had today.
Sounds amazing, doesn't it? How clever of you, Tim.
Oh yes, there will be self-deprecation! Don't you worry about that none.
Part of the reason I do this is that I seem to be wasting my time on Facebook. Don't get me wrong - I love Facebook, but if the only thing we do in our life is write down clever sentences that one or two people enjoy, what's the point?
So the subject of these nightly rantings will be various and sundry. I'm spit balling this, but maybe I can divide my nights into the variety of things going on in my life:
Monday Media  I love movies, and am at the beginning of watching 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, and boy do I have some doozies to talk about.
Tuesday Work My position is youth and young adult director/preacher/care minister at Our Savior Lutheran.
Wednesday Words If someone asks me at parties what I do, beyond what my job is, I'll say, "Failed novelist." It usually ends the conversation.
Thursday Sem  I am attending George Fox Seminary, and each week, there's always something interesting to share that can't wait for a sermon.
Friday Weekly Examen. The week in review, Examen style.
So that's a little about me.
So this being Monday, we should probably talk about media, and this week's hot topic is Noah - what's a Christian to do.
If we've learned anything from the monastery system (which I'll be talking about at the Equip church history class this Saturday!) (plug!), it's that a Christian worth his weight in holy water should never be afraid to engage the world. It's absolutely fine to retreat from the world for a time, but the best ones didn't make it permanent.
We have an opportunity as a youth group to see three "religious" movies this week for our spring break all-nighter: Son of God, God is Not Dead and Noah. The first two are made by Christians, for the encouragement of Christians. I don't have to see Son of God, because I already saw a chunk of it during The Bible mini-series last year, financed by Mark Burnett and his wife/Virgin Mary, Roma Downey. I saw the trailer for God is Not Dead, and recognized immediately its source material, one of those chain emails that never go away about a lone Christian kid up against an Atheistic professor and the rest of the class. I don't think it actually ends with an egg falling on the professor's foot, like in the email, but it's probably not far off. (quick sidenote - the theme of Robert Altman's The Player is that you can take literally any stupid news story, News of the Weird, radio program and turn it into a hit movie. But a chain letter?) You know who made God is Not Dead? Someone obsessed/impressed with the buzzword of Christendom: Apologetics. If I were a teenaged Christian boy trying to impress a smart Christian girl, I would tell her I'm into Apologetics (and I would say it with a capital A). It means you're Christian - but smart. It means you're Christian - and can win an argument. It means you're Christian - and pretentious.
So we're going to see Noah, because if you want to write about sharks, it's better to do it in a shark-proof cage in the Pacific Ocean than from Iowa.
I would rather raise a jr/sr high student who can watch how Hollywood mangles a Bible story than to have his thoughts about his comfortable Christian life confirmed by fellow Pharisees.
And my 30 minutes are up. See you at the movies, 6 pm Wednesday.

Anti-Christ Superstar

Lutheran education carries with it some obvious pitfalls.

After 8 years in elementary, four years in high school and three years for post-bachelor work, I think I can speak to the quality of the Lutheran avenues of learning. I would not be the human being I am today without my Lutheran education, and am a strong proponent of such.

That being said, here are the holes that I see:

1) Greek mythology. I don't know why, but in the 14 years I attended Lutheran educational facilities, I don't remember "Poseidon" ever being mentioned, unless you count Danny Trevino in 4th grade telling me about how McHale was in The Poseidon Adventure. Same with Zeus, Narcissus, Perseus and the rest. Maybe our teachers thought they were competition for the one true living God, but I hate it that I have to ask my wife about the Minotaur.

2) The Pope is the Anti-Christ. I'm no friend of Michelle Bachmann, having never met her, but in her shortened run for the White House, she was pilloried in more than one national publication for belonging to a church who believed the Pope was the Anti-Christ.

Lo and behold, she's Lutheran. 

My first thought was, "Oh my gosh, we're still teaching that aren't we?" I remember Oscar Albers, our 8th grade confirmation teacher looking uncomfortable when we asked about the Anti-Christ, and he said, "All signs point to the Pope." Never mind the spiritual implication of that, what about the athletic ramifications? Our basketball games against Bishop Dwenger and Bishop Luers (Fort Wayne's two Catholic high schools) became that much more interesting. I mean, we had the power of God, which was good and all, but here these guys had the power of The Beast behind them! Every touchdown, every wrestling match, each tennis ball hit was fraught with spiritual peril. I mean, what would tip the balance? Would it be a Lutheran high school track meet beating their Catholic counterpart that would reveal the Man of Lawlessness (2 Thess. 2:3)

Sen. Bachmann was actually asked about it during a debate, and she denied belonging to a church that believed that (70 million Catholic/largely Republican voters might have had something to do with that), and it's true-  she resigned her membership in her church the year before. 

To be fair, that church was a Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) church, our more conservative cousin. Their doctrinal statement indeed states that the revelation of the pope being the Anti-Christ is not theirs - it says so in Scripture. 

So there it is.

Fun fact: 1 John 2 says there are many anti-Christs, along with the Big Kahuna; so anyone who is against Christ, is quite literally an anti-Christ. But as for the Capital A Anti-Christ, that one is a little harder to come by. 

Have popes been anti-Christs? Of course. In fact, three of the 10 worst lived during Luther's time. No wonder that Luther railed against the papacy, as Leo the 10th sold indulgences, Julius III promoted his adopted boy-toy to cardinal and one of the worst people in history - let alone popes - Alexander VI (one of the Borgia clan) were his spiritual fathers?

What about our Synod? Surely we wouldn't be as hidebound.

Guess again. 

In my text book and on LCMS's website, it states that the office of the papacy meets all the requirements of The Capital A Anti-Christ. 

But therein lies the rub. The LCMS site explains it a little better:

 Concerning the historical identity of the Antichrist, we affirm the Lutheran Confessions' identification of the Antichrist with the office of the papacy whose official claims continue to correspond to the Scriptural marks listed above. It is important, however, that we observe the distinction which the Lutheran Confessors made between the office of the pope (papacy) and the individual men who fill that office. The latter could be Christians themselves. We do not presume to judge any person's heart. Also, we acknowledge the possibility that the historical form of the Antichrist cold (sic) change.

Two things on that:

1) So long to your dream of ever seeing a Lutheran sworn into the Oval Office. As long as that little paragraph is on our website, ham-fisted journalists are going to find it; they won't bother making the distinction between "Pope" and "office of the papacy" as having the mark of The Beast.

2) This is a bit of ridiculousness. Saying that the office of the papacy corresponds with the marks of the Anti-Christ (which I don't believe it does) makes about as much sense as saying your son's date looks like a hamster: even if it's true, why point it out? The downside of proclaiming this as part of our doctrine far outweighs the upside Lutherans seem to need to be right at all costs.

For my last two live-streamed video conferences with my fellow seminarians, I strategically placed my Pope John Paul II calendar behind me for full viewing pleasure. It's not exactly letting my freak flag fly, but I hope it leads to a dialogue about how we should be a lot more concerned with little a anti-Christs than whether Pope Benedict smells like sulfur.